Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Roman

Coming back to the apartment, I force myself to retreat to my office. First I call Alex. And if I had any doubt, the man is clear. Lucia is completely on the level. A woman of intense passion and strength, she’d never hurt Maddie for the Vendettis.

It makes me feel both better and worse. I’m glad she’s a good friend to Maddie. But I used imagined wrongdoings to make some pretty shitty choices.

Shaking off my thoughts, I do some solid work, something I’ve barely thought about over the last several days, and I’m amazed to find I haven’t missed at all.

Even now, I’d much rather be at Thomasina’s side with Maddie, staring at the beautiful little kittens.

Jack’s words hit me again. Caring for the cat…that makes me feel like I’m doing something good. Not like building a tunnel to connect casinos, which feels nearly pointless.

To be fair, I know the point. Money. Power.

I tip my chair back at the desk, staring at the immaculate top in front of me. I’ve worked so hard to please my brother, grow the business, fight the war with the Italians; it’s been ages since I even asked myself what I wanted.

I like work. I like to be successful, I’m motivated. I want to be busy. But do I like running casinos?

Do I want to be Mason’s lackey?

I scrub a hand over my face and push up from my desk.

Heading out to the living room, I find Maddie curled on her side on the floor staring into the whelping box.

“Have you been here the whole time?” I chuckle as I slide behind her, cradling her body against my own.

She leans her head back against my shoulder, a smile tugging at her lips. “I can’t seem to tear myself away.”

“How’s our sick kitten?”

“Fine,” she answers. “Eating like the rest of them.”

I kiss along her neck, wrapping my arm around her to pull her even closer. She lets out a long sigh.

I know she’s got something on her mind. I don’t know if it involves me or not. “Nice way to spend the afternoon.”

“Good for thinking,” she replies.

“Thinking about what?” I start lightly brushing my fingers up and down her arm, trying not to show the tension I feel.

She blows a piece of hair back from her face. “The past, I guess. My present and my future.”

I relax, giving her a squeeze. “That’s so funny. Me too.”

She turns her face toward me, the tip of her nose brushing mine. “What are you thinking about?”

Do I want her to share? I think it might be time for me too as well. “I know you know that both my parents died, but my mom died in a car accident first.”

She keeps brushing the tip of her nose over my skin, making it easier for me to keep talking. “She was drunk behind the wheel. She’d gotten a call that I remember. She’d been screaming into the phone, babbling almost incoherently. I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but I know what it was about. She left minutes later.”

“What was it about? Why did she leave?”

“I think she was going off to catch my dad in his latest affair.”

Maddie winces against me, her cheeks pulling taut as her hands tighten on mine. I close my eyes. “The last two years of her life, all she did was drink. All the time. She didn’t cook. Didn’t clean. When she was really drunk, she’d scream long ranting tirades about my father and his affairs.”

She gasps against my cheek. “You’re the youngest?”

“No. I have a younger sister. Arabella. She’s away at school in New York now. She tries to spend as little time as possible with us, and who can blame her?”

“Mason and Leo. Where were they when all of this was happening with your mother?”

“Leo was already working a casino floor, and Mason was off at business school. Harvard.”

“Oh,” Maddie’s breath rushes across my face. “You were the one stuck taking care of your mother, weren’t you?”

“My mother. My sister. The house. Cooking. Cleaning. Walking my sister to school.”

“Roman,” she turns in my arms, her chest pressing to mine as her arms loop around my neck. “That is so much.”

She’s not wrong.

“The thing is, I’ve spent so much of my life doing what other people demand of me. Require. That I haven’t asked myself in a very long time what I want. Who I want to be.”

Maddie’s mouth brushes across mine, the kiss light and comforting. I drink in her taste, her feel, greedy for more.

“And who do you want to be?”

Her man.

Christ, it’s so fucking simple. So ridiculously easy. The problem is every move I’ve made up to this point has made that less and less likely. “Still working that one out.”

“Me too,” she whispers against my lips. “But I think I’m starting to have some ideas.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t want to hide anymore, even if people like Mike sometimes hurt me.”

I squeeze her tighter. Everyone gets hit by other people’s prejudices, but my Maddie is extra vulnerable. “I can go back and punch him out. He deserves it.”

She laughs, her chest moving against mine. “I’m all right. Thank you, though.”

“What else?”

“I think I want to learn to balance my heart and my head.”

“Your heart is one of the best things about you.” The words come out before I can hold them back.

She shrugs. “It gets me in trouble a lot. I go rushing in…”

“Maddie, I know. I get it. But it also makes you so lovable. I…” My eyes close again and I roll onto my back, pulling her on top of me. “I love you, Maddie. I’m in love with you.”

I feel her breath catch, hear her gasp. Opening my eyes, I stare up at her shocked expression. “Roman.”

“I think I know what I want to be too,” I murmur and then kiss her open mouth closed.

“What?”

“The person who helps you realize your dreams.”

She shakes her head. “No.”

“What?” My heart stutters in my chest.

She places her hands on either side of my face. “I know what you’re doing. You’re taking care of me. Don’t. I can do it myself and you’ve got your whole business. Think about what you’re saying.”

Grinning, I kiss her again. She’s worried about me. Refusing because she wants what is best for me. “Oh. I have.” My hands slide down her back and over her ass. Hooking her legs, I pull them apart, settling them on either side of me. “I want you.”

“Roman,” my name breaks on her lips. But I don’t talk more as I kiss her again.

I don’t tell her about my fantasy. We run charities, an animal hospital all our own, a rehab center.

We fill our lives with each other, with the care and keeping of all the wounded souls we find—and together, we heal.

Instead, I grind my hips up, pushing her ass down, giving her the sort of pressure that has her frantic in seconds.

Her fingers twine through my hair, our kiss becoming hectic as I part her lips and plunge my tongue into her mouth.

I want to be inside her the way I want to take in air. My tongue, my fingers, my cock.

I want to fill her.

I just fucking want…

Maddie understands, pushing up so that she can yank her shirt over her head. Then she’s back on my chest, her skin of her back sliding under my hands.

I snap open the clasps of her lacy bra, the fabric giving. Brushing the straps down her arms, the bra pools on my chest.

I kick off my shoes, not even breaking the kiss, and then reach down and pull hers off too.

She’s totally pliant in my arms in this way that I love.

I push her back up, sitting up enough to yank my shirt over my head. When she comes back down, her full tits crush against my chest and I groan in satisfaction.

This is what I need. Her skin on my skin.

Her breath in my mouth.

I’m tugging at her leggings, nearly ripping them off her body. “Roman,” she gasps. “You just bought me these.”

“I’ll get you more, baby.” The fabric tears, not that it helps me get them off any faster. But I still try.

Because I don’t want her chest off my chest. It takes me some maneuvering and some more tearing to strip her naked.

My own jeans go down much faster.

I don’t even care they’re still around my knees.

Because my tongue is in her mouth, my cock nestling into her soaking-wet pussy.

Using my finger, I tease her slit, spreading her juices until her hips are chasing my touch.

Maddie is so fucking responsive.

She’s already moaning. “Roman. Please. Yes. God.”

It only makes me go slower. She grinds harder against me, growing frantic. I love working her into a frenzy and I’d delay even longer, but when she pushes down, the head of my cock sinks through her wet folds and into her entrance.

Now I’m the one moaning out my pleasure as I push in deeper until I bottom out inside her.

I’m still kissing her, swallowing all her noises of pleasure but it isn’t enough.

I want more of her.

I want to claim her. Sliding my hand over the crack of her ass, I start a slow rhythm with my cock even as I begin fingering the outside of her little brown hole with my middle finger.

I feel her pussy spasm around me, another flood of her juices running down my thighs and I know she wants it as much as I want to give it to her.

Gently, I push the tip of my finger into her back door, her gasp and then groan of pleasure is all I need to know.

Still. I pull back from our kiss to give her a quick, “You good, baby?”

“So good.”

That’s all the encouragement I need to sink deeper.

My sweet innocent girl isn’t going to last long. I can feel her pussy spasming around my cock, clenching and unclenching as she moans into my mouth, any art with her tongue gone.

It’s sloppy and dirty.

It’s the hottest fucking sex I’ve ever had, our bodies so in tune as I pump my tongue, my cock, and my finger in and out of her.

I know she’s really getting close when her moans turn to screams.

Wherever we live, Maddie and I are going to need some privacy, because my girl is loud.

She bears down on me, her body growing tight, her fingernails digging into my scalp deep enough I know she’s going to leave marks.

But I’m relentless, pumping in and out of her until, she gives one final long, loud cry and then she cums hard.

I feel it gripping me so tight, I nearly break too.

But I hold back.

When her hips finally start to slow, and her head lolls onto my shoulder, that’s when I flip her around.

Landing on her back, I only take one second to make sure she’s good before I set a relentless pace, pumping in and out of her like a man possessed.

I know I’m claiming her. Maddie is mine.

With every thrust it’s like I repeat it over and over.

The cum is boiling in my balls, my body so ready to break, I’m taut as a drum.

That’s when I pull out. With a quick jerk, my cum erupts on her belly, showering her with my seed.

I want to see it on her skin.

Her hands are up above her head, her body stretched out before me as she gives me a lazy smile.

Swiping my index finger through the salty liquid, I raise it to her lips, brushing my finger across the plump pink flesh. “Taste me, baby.”

She opens for me, her tongue licking along the pad of my finger.

“Just so we’re clear,” I lay on top of her, my cum now pressed to both her skin and mine as I lick inside her mouth. “I want to be where you are. Doing what you do.”

“Roman,” she whispers against my lips.

“Let me be your protector, sweetheart. Your muscle. Your eyes when you need to see, your hands when you need precision.”

“And in return?”

“You will be my heart. Teach me to love the way you do, sweetheart.”

“Oh Roman, you know that already. You always have.”

I’m not so sure. Wait until she hears what I’ve done.

But I can’t tell her yet. Frist, I’ll make it all right, and then I’ll share the whole truth.

Because I need Maddie to stay by my side.